[gha] Regarding Glen Martin's Helpoful Comment for the new GHA Book

Dear GHA Members:
I have felt deep disappointment to see our overall reaction to Glen Martin's
very helpful comments on our new book. Many thanks to Maria Christina Azcona
for her recent efforts to improve this.
In my view, we must deliberately avoid personal attack and we must discipline
ourselves to accept criticism in a positive way. (Believe me, I am too familiar
with my own reactions to criticism, and I find have to constantly suppress my
own "knee-jerk" reactions.)
Thus, in the spirit of harmony and peace, and a personal appeal for all of us
to improve our new book, I ask that we shift the focus back to the original
comments from Glen Martin, which I quote (in part) below. Can we please try to
consider these ideas as we develop our manuscripts?
Thoughts from Glen for the new GHA book:
In our book, we need to consider these comments from Glen Martin and take them
seriously. He is helping us see new directions for peace studies.
1....the vast contributions to understanding the violent dynamics of our world
made by Max Weber, Immanuel Wallerstein, Jürgen Habermas, and others.
>
>
>2....the global ethics movement and the great amount of work done on defining
>global ethics on behalf of peace.
>
>
>3....the theory and practice of nonviolence and the vast amount of work coming
>from the inspirations of Gandhi, King, Tolstoy, etc.
>
>
>4....the worldwide movement for the study and practice of nonviolent
>communication led my Marshall Rosenberg and others.
>
>
>5....the role of capitalism in the promotion of war, a literature spearheaded
>by Marx and continued by many others.
>
>
>6....[the literature on] totalitarianism, its forms and roles in war and
>violence… [considering] the literature on that subject, led, for example, by
>Hannah Arendt.
>
>
>7....the institutions and motivations usually associated with war and
>violence: multinational corporations, systems of exploitation,
>industrial-military complexes, militarized sovereign national security states,
>terror and counter-terror, undemocratic structures of governing, motives for
>imperialism, patterns of hate, fear, and ignorance, etc. – things that are
>most often taken as causes of war and impediments to be overcome through a
>process of both dialogue as well as structural changes.
>
>
>8....the vast literature on human rights and human dignity and its
>contributions to creating peace and harmony.
>
>
>9....the ethics of care and compassion and the literature around that theme.
>
>
>10....the positive things that are usually associated with the establishing of
>peace: conflict resolution, authentic democratic modes of governing, economic
>conversion to peaceful goods and services, dialogue directed toward mutual
>understanding, nonviolence in theory and practice, nonviolent forms of
>communication, economic and social justice, truth and reconciliation
>processes, respect for human rights and human dignity, etc.
>
>
>11....the ethical, structural, social, and psychological characteristics of a
>world peace system (as opposed to the present war-system)
>
>
>12....how the four societal spheres can be effectively and properly
>differentiated or what value it would be to approach society this way. Each
>set of social information – humanitarian, instrumental (informational),
>organizational, and technical would seem to apply to all the spheres?... Just
>collecting data is not going to create peace. the ethical, structural,
>social, and psychological characteristics of a world peace system (as opposed
>to the present war-system)?
Now that I have reiterated these important thoughts, please spare me the
personal attacks we've had to endure. Isn't it obvious that, as a peace group,
we need to be at peace with each other? The members of GHA represent an
articulate "think tank" seeking harmony and peace. Let's learn to work with
each other and continue to make a significant contribution to world peace.
Yours in pursuit of harmony and peace,
Bruce
Bruce L. Cook, Ph.D.
President, GHA-USA
Vice-President, GHA
Director of CSSS Publishing and Editorial team
President, World Writers Resources, Inc.
Author, Harmony of Nations: 1943 – 2020, Just Fiction Editions, 2012
1407 Getzelman Drive
Elgin, IL 60123 USA
312-859-8090
cookcomm@xxxxxxxxx
www.harmonyofnations.com
http://author-me.comhttp://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=544